Heidi Wakefield found herself with an unexpectedly open summer in 2022. She had planned to spend the months after her freshman year at Brigham Young University as a Nauvoo performing missionary, but her application was denied. A possible solution presented itself in a job opportunity back home in St. George, Utah, but there was one issue—the investment firm usually only hired people interested in finance. “I’ll never do finance,” she told them at the interview.
The company took a chance on Wakefield, and she took a chance on finance. By the end of the summer, she was registering for pre-business classes at the BYU Marriott School of Business. She spent the school year after her summer job preparing two applications: a second application to be a performing missionary in Nauvoo, and an application to BYU Marriott’s finance program. Both were accepted.
Now a senior in the finance program, Wakefield reflects: “It all worked out, it was just in God’s timing. I didn’t realize I needed to change my major before going to Nauvoo so I could be set on that career path before moving on to the next step.”
Wakefield’s unexpected shift into finance led her to new opportunities, including six internships, ranging from commercial real estate to corporate finance. Looking back, she acknowledges that she couldn’t have done it on her own. “It’s not always easy to be a minority as a woman in the finance world, and I needed all the help from mentors I could get,” she says. “I could not get to where I’m at today professionally if I didn’t have that huge network of BYU alumni and my supportive family.”
Appreciative of the giving spirit at BYU Marriott, Wakefield tries to similarly help others. She served as vice president in the Women in Finance Association, and she also maintains connection with Distinguished Young Women, a scholarship program she competed in as a high schooler. She now mentors young women who participate in the nonprofit. “There have been so many people that have mentored me and been so kind to me,” she says. “I feel the need to pass it on to other students.”
Her desire to pass on the mentorship she had received also led her to apply to be copresident of the BYU Marriott Student Leadership Advisory Council (SLAC) in 2024, but she didn’t get the position. “That’s okay,” she remembers thinking. “It probably wasn’t the right thing for me.”
But when Wakefield ended up at BYU Marriott a year longer than she originally planned, she realized she could have another opportunity to serve with SLAC and applied again. She was named copresident of SLAC for the 2025–26 school year alongside strategy senior Cole Bourne.
As copresident, Wakefield collaborates with Bourne and other student leaders to help run events like the BYU Marriott Case Competition. To increase engagement from other SLAC members, Wakefield says she and Bourne prioritized relationships. “We needed to get buy-in from everyone,” she says. They made an effort to meet with the copresidents of each student organization individually and get their input on what would be most helpful for SLAC meetings. “Everyone is so excited to come to the meetings and learn from each other,” she says. “And now, when we send out things like 'advertise for the case competition,' people jump on it and are willing to help.”
Along with the logistical elements of her role in SLAC, Wakefield says she enjoys mentoring underclassmen. “Students come up to me nervous and overwhelmed,” she says. “I get to be the one to say, ‘I was pre-business too, and I was so stressed. But don't worry, you can totally do this.’”
As Wakefield looks back on her path to and through the finance program, she says she is grateful for God’s involvement in her life. “God knew that I would love this,” she says. “I’m sure there could have been many other paths that I chose that He would have supported, but I’m grateful that He was kind enough to guide me to this path.”
